Word.ws English Dictionary

run rampant

run rampant verb: to go unchecked or without control; to be wild or excessive.

Verb

run rampant (third-person singular simple present runs rampant, present participle running rampant, simple past ran rampant, past participle run rampant)

  1. (idiomatic) To go unchecked or without control; to be wild or excessive.
    • The weeds have long run rampant in the garden and it would be difficult to regain control.
    • Conditions were horrendous aboard most British naval vessels at the time. Scurvy and other diseases ran rampant, killing more seamen each year than all other causes combined, including combat.2012 March, William E. Carter, Merri Sue Carter, “The British Longitude Act Reconsidered”, in American Scientist, volume 100, number 2, page 87

Forms of run rampant

third-person singular presentruns rampant
present participlerunning rampant
pastran rampant
past participlerun rampant

Questions about run rampant

What does run rampant mean?
Run rampant means to go unchecked or without control; to be wild or excessive.
What part of speech is run rampant?
Run rampant is a verb.
What is the past tense of run rampant?
The past tense of run rampant is ran rampant.

Words near run rampant in the dictionary

  1. run out the clock
  2. run outs
  3. run over
  4. run past
  5. run point
  6. run rampant
  7. run rate
  8. run rates
  9. run rings around
  10. run rings round
  11. run riot

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: run rampant (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-run rampant.ogg.

Cite this entry: “run rampant.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/run_rampant. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.